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Sunday, February 3, 2013

Kitaran Hidup Sengkuang (Seeds Give-Away)

We did a lot of digging this week and one of the happy digging time was taking out the jicama/mexican turnip or in Malaysia known as sengkuang' tubers out from the soil. Now I need some ideas from other gardeners how to enjoy this sengkuang, Any favourite dishes? Facebook buddy gardeners has introduce me to Nyonya dish 'Ju Hu Char' which is jicama stir-fry with dried cuttlefish which I would like to try as soon as I get some dried cuttlefish.

Sengkuang grows easily in the tropics as it loves heat and high humidity. Definitely a good plant for novice gardener in tropics to try. For juicy tubers will need lots of water. Not enough water will cause the growing tubers to crack which happened when we tried growing them in Adelaide that have really dry summer because we did not water enough the plants in summer as we should. Infrequent consistent watering during drought season might resulted in crack tubers. It was a tricky attempts at growing sengkuang in Mediterranean climate but so easily grown here in the tropics. Experiencing different climate growing sengkuang was to me a valuable one. Don't judge by the size of the sengkuang tubers, younger tubers are more sweeter than the older ones.

Sprouted sengkuang seeds poking out.

Sengkuang actually does not require many space to grow. In fact it can also be grown in containers which we did in our previous home with limited space (link). Sengkuang plants is a half-climber. When the plants are small you train them up and later on they find their own way. If you don't have a rich fertile soil, you can grow sengkuang plant first as they are legume, a natural nitrogen-fixer.

Sengkuang flowers. The sengkuang plants that we grown in Adelaide never produces flowers. The lilac flower shape resembles closely to winged bean and snake bean.

30 comments:

hi diana, i was os ignorant before reading this- never knew senkuang can be grown locally and they are twining creepers! i thought they are like turnips or kohlrabi..heh heh, you got great harvest- your lemon fuiting a lot too.

I'm totally ignorant about how turnips grow so I'm really surprised by this new revealation from you. When I think of turnip I instantly think of popiah. I love the way you dress up your harvest with Bauhenia kockiana and Ternatea clitorea.

I tried to grow jicama before and never got very big tubers, I would love to try again - maybe your seeds will do better! I heard that you need to cut back the flowers to force the bulbs to grow bigger. I love them raw just as they are!

I'm not sure what I would do with them and whether or not you'd be allowed to send seeds to Vic so don't worry about including me but I am fascinated by the plant and all those interesting fruits you harvested. Calamansi and Nam Nam fruits look really good.

Hi Diana, like Sue I don't wish to be included in your draw, but I just wanted to say that the Aquilegia plants that I grew from seeds you sent me last year are just beginning to put up their new leaves, so I will hopefully soon be able to see what colour they are (you remember you refused to tell me?!)Those Jicama plants are very wierd - a "turnip" that grows like a bean??

Hi Diana,Love all your harvest! Especially your sengkuang! I did thought of growing sengkuang before. Since this is suitable for container growing, I would love to try it! How would you know it is time to harvest? The pods are quite big!You have a wonderful harvest of the lemons! I've just spotted one lemon on my little plant a couple of days ago! Wish you a wonderful week!

i also used to have a pomelo plant in my house but the pomelos are not really edible. It was planted in a big pot, not on ground and the fruits did not grow big. anyway, the main purpose we planted that is for the leaves. I usually cook sengkuang like the ju hu char, but simple one..just put shredded carrots, shredded turnips and some dried shrimps..sometimes chinese also put in pork. You can also add sengkuang to make vegetable stock..letak soy beans, sengkuang, carrot..pun okay:)

Never knew Sengkuang plant looks like a beans/pea plant.Now I know. I had used Sengkuang cut in small pieces together with Guava and mixed with green salad tossed with a little honey, olive oil and lemon/lime juice.I enjoyed it - maybe you can try it if you enjoy green salads.

My brother cuts jicama into thin strips like french fries and tosses them with lime juice, hot sauce (such as Rooster or Tabasco), and a pinch of salt for snacking. Cilantro would also be good in this.

We have started gardening for about 4 years now since I had my first pregnancy scan with Rayyan and he was diagnose with cardiac defect.We want our children to know where veggies come from and eat vegetable which is chemical free. Furthermore taste the true flavour of heirloom vegetables and fruits. Our gardening adventure started in Adelaide (blog archive 2010-2012) with Mediterranean / Warm Temperate Climate. Now we grow our own food in Tropical Climate in a green zone 20 less kilometre away from the Malaysia capital city Kuala Lumpur.